1. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.
2. To him Abraham also gave a tenth part of everything. In the first place, his name is translated “king of righteousness,” and then also he is king of Salem, which means “king of peace.”
3. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he continually remains a priest.
4. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.
5. Surely the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a command to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, from their brothers, though they also come from the seed of Abraham.